Popular Woodworking 2000-02 № 113, страница 7

Popular Woodworking 2000-02 № 113, страница 7

under the impression that wooden table-tops needed to be allowed to move and should never be screwed down tightly, although I could never quite figure out why.

But the voice of experience (your magazine) tells us that you have learned the opposite: secure tabletops tightly with pocket hole screws. It makes sense to me but would you care to comment further on it for the sake of other readers and for the edification of the TV commentators?

James C. Johnson West Chester, Pennsylvania

Editor's note: Hand tighten the screws to the top. As the top moves, the apron will either slide over the top edge of the apron or just push it out. Either way, it doesn't matter. The pocket holes mentioned were a little oversized and drilled in a table apron. This arrangement lends itself to accommodating wood movement (table aprons are quite floppy until you screw a top to them). The slightly oversized holes (a hole for a #10 screw) yield a little, too. We use the same method for securing battens across the tops. The screwhead gives a little as the top expands. The only time I've seen significant movement or more) was when the furniture was placed in a very humid environment or after being moved to a dry one.

—Jim Stuard, associate editor

Are There More Plans

for the Blacker House Bench?

I just bought the November issue (#111) of Popular Woodworking and was very pleased to see an excellent article on building a replica of the hall bench from the Blacker House. I have long admired this excellent example of the Greene and Greene style, and had only recently begun to design one modeled on a photo from one of Randall Makinson's books on Greene and Greene furniture. (I was going to wing the dimensions!)

Your article will obviously save me the trouble of designing my own, except that I will have to cut down the dimensions slightly to fit the space that I have in mind for the piece. I was wondering if scaled drawings, plus cutting patterns at full scale are available for sale, or if you have a CAD file you could make available to scale the various members to full scale to make cutting pat-

10 Popular Woodworking February 2000